The feds said the money was a bribe for the water polo coach, Jovan Vavic, to let Wilson’s son on the team. In emails between Wilson and an unnamed cooperating witness they called it getting in the “side door.”

“Would the other kids know was a bench warmer side door person? ...” Wilson asked, according to court documents. “Obviously his skill level may be below the other freshman.”

The witness told Wilson his son wouldn’t actually have to play. “...Frankly after the 1st semester he can move on.”

Wilson is a 1983 Harvard business school graduate who runs a financial services firm. He has also held C-level posts Staples, the Gap and Northwest Airlines. According to court documents, once the deal was done, he asked the witness to bill him for consulting “so that I can pay it from the corporate account.”

The witness agreed to help him write off the expense, and Wilson replied, “Awesome!”

Four years later, Wilson tried to get his daughters “side door” deals as student-athletes at Stanford or Harvard. The witness allegedly told him he could get the girls into both schools for $1.5 million.

According to the documents, the witness told Wilson he had to save spots for “whoever’s gonna ante up.”

In a taped phone call, he told Wilson that the Stanford coach, John Vandemoer, could only give one of his daughters a spot.

“He has to actually recruit some real sailors so that Stanford doesn’t catch on,” the witness allegedly told Wilson.

The deal never happened because the FBI was involved at that point.

Vandemoer has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of racketeering conspiracy.

No staff at Harvard was involved.

Wilson pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Gordie Ernst, a New England Tennis Hall of Famer who is the current head coach of women’s tennis at the University of Rhode Island, was one of two New England coaches indicted in the sweeping scandal as well. He has pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges.

His charges are not tied to any activity at URI. The school said he started working there last year, and has not been involved in recruiting.

But according to the feds, he raked in more than $2.7 million in bribes to bring on a dozen kids as tennis recruits at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Former Yale University women’s soccer coach Rudolph Meredith, of Madison, Conn., also was accused of accepting bribes while at Yale to designate applicants as recruits to the soccer team.

Among the accusations against Meredith was a charge that he accepted money to “revise” the application, personal statement and art portfolio of the daughter of a Los Angeles-based financial advisor into a soccer application.

He was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud as well as honest services wire fraud.